Dr. Handy’s Cottage

by Sherry Chapman

First published in October/November, 2004, Volume 1, Issue 5, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

Lizzie Borden’s vacation plans for August of 1892 sounded fun. She was to go to the coastal community of Marion to visit with eleven women friends and perhaps take in a little fishing. Marion was, and is, a lovely town located on Buzzard’s Bay, about 25 miles from Fall River. Today it takes about a half hour to get there from Lizzie’s house on Second Street. To Lizzie and her Fall River friends, Marion must have been a cool haven of beauty and a stark contrast to the heat and mills of home.

Her fellow vacationers consisted almost entirely of members of the Central Congregational Church, where Lizzie was an active member. Her friends were already at the cottage by August 4th, and Lizzie planned to join them on Monday, the 8th. “. . . they went sooner than I could, and I was going Monday,” Lizzie told Prosecutor Hosea Knowlton. She explained, “I had taken the secretaryship and treasurer of our C.E. society, had the charge, and the roll call was the first Sunday in August, and I felt I must be there and attend to that part of the business” (Inquest 56).

Awaiting Lizzie at the Marion cottage were Alice Buck, daughter of Reverend Buck, a staunch supporter of Lizzie during her arrest and trial, Anna and Mary Louisa Holmes, daughters of the prominent Charles J. Holmes, who with his wife would also stand by Lizzie, sisters Louise and Mabel Remington, and Dr. Benjamin Handy’s daughter, Louise. Also in the group were Isabel Fraser, Elizabeth Johnston, Annie Bush, Mrs. Caroline Thurston Jackson (daughter of Rev. Eli Thurston of Central Congregational Church), her 9-year-old daughter, Edith, and Jennie Stowell. Almost everyone was a teacher, except for Elizabeth Johnston, who was a school principal (Rebello 64; “No information was found” on Jennie Stowell).

Before Lizzie could get away to Marion, calamity struck that Thursday. Her father and stepmother were brutally butchered to death in their home in Fall River in broad daylight. Lizzie and the servant girl, Bridget, were the only ones at home during the time of these murders, and it was Lizzie who was soon suspected.

A large part of Lizzie’s defense during the inquest into the deaths of Andrew and Abby Borden centered on her whereabouts during the murder of her father. Lizzie and Bridget acknowledge Mr. Borden’s near-eleven AM homecoming, Bridget going upstairs to her attic room to nap before starting the noon meal, and by 11:15 Lizzie discovering her father’s dead body and calling Bridget down to report the event. Where were you while your Father was being killed? Everyone wanted to know.

Lizzie’s answer to the question at the coroner’s inquest, held August 9-11, was that she was in the barn looking for sinkers for her fishing trip to Marion. 

Q: Was going to go fishing the next Monday, were you? 

A: I don’t know that we should go fishing Monday.

Q: Going to the place to go fishing Monday?

A. Yes sir.

Q: This was Thursday, and you had no idea of using any fishing apparatus before the next Monday?

A: No sir.

Q: You had no fishing apparatus you were proposing to use the next Monday until then?

A: No sir, not until I bought it.

Q: You had not bought anything?

A: No sir.

[. . .]

Q: The first thing in preparation for your fishing trip the next Monday was to go to the loft of that barn to find some old sinkers to put on some hooks and lines that you had not then bought?

A: I thought if I found no sinkers I would have to buy the sinkers when I bought the lines.

Q: You thought you would be saving something by hunting in the loft of the barn before you went to see whether you should need them or not?

A: I thought I would find out whether there were any sinkers before I bought the lines; and if there was, I should not have to buy any sinkers. If there were some, I should only have to buy the lines and the hooks.

Q: You began the collection of your fishing apparatus by searching for the sinkers in the barn?

A: Yes sir (Inquest 73).

It sounded, well, fishy, and proved to be the primary reason why Lizzie Borden was proclaimed “probably guilty”. 

When Doctor Handy testified at the preliminary hearing, held August 25th to September 1st, he thought Lizzie had been to the cottage already. Prosecutor Knowlton asked him a series of questions about the day of the Borden murders:

Q: You were in town that day?

A: Yes.

Q: You either had been before that, or afterwards very soon were over to Marion?

A: Yes Sir, the next day.

Q: It was at your cottage that Miss Lizzie was expected to go?

A: Yes.

Q: Had she been over there?

A: I think she had.

Q: She had been over once and came back again?

A: That is my impression.

Q: How long did she stay there?

A: I do not know.

Q: Were you there when she was there?

A: No Sir.

Q: Do you know when it was?

A: I have the impression it was the Saturday before.

Q: When did the party go? There was quite a party of them, was there not?

A: I could not tell you, sir.

Q: It was the next day you went to Marion?

A: Yes Sir, Friday (Prelim 456).

It is interesting to contemplate the motive for Lizzie’s probable visit to Dr. Handy’s cottage on the Saturday before the murders (July 30). If one subscribes to the theory that she premeditated these crimes and that in the days before the murders Lizzie had something up her mutton sleeve, perhaps she also had an unwholesome reason for making that cottage visit. 

Dr. Benjamin J. Handy was a practicing physician in Fall River. He was born in Marion and was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1872. By the year 1892 he had been in practice for 18 years, the entire time in Fall River (Herald News, May 16, 1929). Dr. Handy was on Second Street the day of the murders and said he saw a strange looking man near the house. The press dubbed this person “The Wild Eyed Man” or sometimes “Dr. Handy’s Wild Eyed Man.” Yet, according to Dr. Paul Dennis Hoffman in Yesterday in Old Fall River, Handy never publicly remarked about “a strangeness in the man’s eyes or that they were in any way wild.” While many people said they saw strangers near the Borden home, Handy’s sighting of the strange man outside the Borden home was accepted as fact by the police because he was a respected and well-known member of Fall River society (Hoffman 151-153).

The Cottage

Since I was a child, I had hoped to see a photo of Dr. Handy’s cottage because it played such an important, albeit side, role in the Borden case. I pictured a small cabin, Cape Cod style of course, with a picket fence, wildflowers blowing from the sea breeze coming in from the bay, the water a stone’s throw from the back door. I did wonder, though, how in the world all those ladies fit into this ‘cottage’. Fiddle dee dee; I’ll think about that tomorrow, and continued picturing the cottage as best I could in my imagination. 

To see the genuine article—to have an authentic visual to go along with the Borden story—ah, come along with me. The best is yet to be.

I contacted the curator of the historical society in Marion and made an inquiry about the Handy cottage. I had hoped it was still standing. I planned to photograph it, even though it might mean jumping stone walls and breaking bones to get a photo that could very well be of a decrepit pile of near-rubble. I received a prompt and quite thorough reply from Pete Smith, the curator of the Sippican Historical and Preservation Society in Marion, Massachusetts. I was informed that the cottage was torn down in 1942 and a new residence was built on the site. He did, however, have a photograph of the cottage, of which he enclosed a photocopy. 

There it was—a full 8 x 10 copy, in color, but too dark to reproduce. Continuing our correspondence, we agreed that I would see Mr. Smith during my next trip to Fall River, when I was welcome to take my own photographs of his original. I phoned Mr. Smith (Pete) when I was in Fall River this past spring. His voice was as nice and as welcoming as his letters. I looked forward to our meeting the next morning.

Arriving in town a little early, I went to the post office, which is next to the Historical Society, to get some postcard stamps. There were two ladies in front of me, and each one addressed the clerk by his first name. (We’ll call him John.) I thought I’d have a little fun, so when it was my turn I said, “How’s it goin’, John?” Now, “John” was supposed to get a strange look on his face, wondering from where he knew me. But not this “John.” This was “Cool John.” He smiled and said things were goin’ fine. 

I then noticed a cute guy with a mop of gray curly hair, dressed in sweats. He looked at me. I looked at him. Nah, I thought. I chalked it up to a case of Pete Paranoia.

Crossing the gleaming hardwood floor of the lobby of the post office, I glanced around at the many leaflets available, seeing if anything caught my eye. Suddenly I missed a step down and, judging from the speed, I was about to land painfully. Oh no, I thought, I am not going to fall! I instinctively used my arms to keep upright by doing a sort of whirling motion with them. I must have looked to passersby like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, rubbery legs and all. I was totally embarrassed by that exit of mine and thought never, never will I go in that post office again! 

Composing myself, I walked over to the Historical Society. My husband was already there. He must have heard me enter the building. “Sherry,” he called out sweetly, “guess who’s here?” My husband came into the room, with Pete Smith, the cute guy in sweats from the post office. Pete was a little quiet. I’m sure he didn’t quite know what to say, and I don’t even want to surmise what he was thinking. I said, “Geez. Ya try to come into town with a little dignity …” And we laughed and shared two of the most pleasant hours I probably ever had.

The photo that Pete had photocopied and sent to me was temporarily missing, but he did locate another, different one. Luckily, this one was even better than the first. Dr. Handy’s cottage in Marion was built in the 19th century. When I saw the photo I realized that I had been right all these years. It was white, and there were gorgeous trees in bloom about. But contrary to my vision of the size of anything called a “cottage,” this building was no small thing. The Handy cottage safely fits into the ‘house’ category. It would have had no problem accommodating Lizzie and her large group of friends. The dwelling appears on an 1855 town map of Marion noted as the residence of F. P. Handy, Dr. Handy’s father. 

On the back of this frame was a hand-written page about the house that I was allowed to copy, and it reads as follows:

“The Last Look”

The old “Ben” Jones Handy House on South Street, taken during the [sic] early one morning of June 1941. Before being taken down, and a new house built there again in place of it for a Dr. Alphonse Query, a dentist from New Bedford, who has decided to move in town and settle here, in Marion. [Another hand writes here:] Now Ludec house built there 9 South Avenue.

The house is one of the early to mid 19th century types. In fact an old Town Map of Marion of 1855 notes it as the residency of F. P. Handy, or Frederick P. Handy, father of the so-called “Benjamin Jones Handy”, who became a doctor and resided for years in Fall River. And the other brother “Osmer Plummer Handy” *, who continued to live in the old homestead, and made a living more or less around the water. And so continued thus for some years till his brother “Ben” decided to come back to town again and lived there awhile and built a small house down on the waterfront near the Landdock [?] for his brother “Plummer” as he was called the [sic] most by that name. And sent him down there then lived in the house himself for awhile then took up residence later on in a house down on Charles Neck. And so continued to live down there till his death. Then “Ben’s” daughter Louise then lived in the old house for a while till the place was sold. Then went to live elsewhere. The last place was at the upstairs apartment (east end) of the William H. Hathaway homestead on Main Street till ill health forced her to go to Elm Crest Rest Home in Mattapoisett on North Street till her death a year or so ago.

* One of the famous characters of the town till his death in 1918 (a real character)

Signed,

John Henry Bates

86 Mill Street

Marion, Mass.

Plymouth County

Sept. 8, 1957 

[Another hand adds:] “Friends of Lizzie Borden” of the famous murder case in Fall River. Lizzie visited its house often.

My husband and I took photos of the picture both inside and outside of the museum with different types of cameras, hoping for one clear shot out of the bunch.

After our little photo shoot, Pete took us on a walk. That was an unexpected pleasure. The town of Marion was so beautiful. The weather was perfect on this April day. It was sunny and about 70 degrees. We walked a short way down South Street, stopping in front of a home marked #9. This, explained Pete, was the site of Dr. Handy’s cottage. (A 1903 map shows it to be #69, belonging to “B.J. Handy”.) Today, an attractive, well-kept home is in its place. There did not appear to be much of a yard. The homes on the street were town homes. They were certainly not on the “waterfront” or directly on Buzzard’s Bay. They were in sight of the water, which was visible past the end of the street, and it was a gorgeous view. 

During Dr. Handy and Lizzie’s time, the Sippican Hotel was very near the water. The hotel was razed around 1930. There was also a casino. All that remains of both are postcards, framed on a wall of the museum. I had to wonder if Lizzie ever went to the casino and if so, what she did there.

I can’t say I’d like to take another “trip” there. But I will go back to Marion.

Works Cited

Handwritten note on back of cottage photo at the Sippican Historical and Preservation Society. Special thanks to Pete Smith, curator of the Sippican Historical and Preservation Society in Marion, Massachusetts. 

Hoffman, Paul Dennis. Yesterday in Old Fall River: A Lizzie Borden Companion. Carolina Academic Press, 2000.

Inquest Upon the Deaths of Andrew J. and Abby D. Borden, August 9 – 11, 1892. Orlando: PearTree Press, 2003.

“Obituary of Dr. Handy.” Fall River Herald News 16 May 1929: 2. 

Preliminary Hearing in the Borden Case before Judge Blaisdell, August 25 through September 1, 1892. Orlando: PearTree Press, 2003.

Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden: Past and Present. Fall River: Al-Zach Press, 1999.